Pile fabric



Jan. 21, 1969 I. E. NORMAN, JR

FILE FABRIC Filed May 5, 1966 FIG.2.

mvawro: GEORGE E. NORMAN, JR.

U.S. Cl. 57-140 United States Patent 3,422,615 PILE FABRIC George E. Norman, Jr., Greensboro, N.C., assignor to Burlington Industries, Inc., Greensboro, NC, a corporation of Delaware Filed May 3, 1966, Ser. No. 547,199

Claims Int. Cl. D02g 3/06 ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to a pile fabric and more particularly to a fabric of the type used for soft floor coverings and upholstery in which the filaments of the pile yarns are of generally rectangular cross section, approximately unform in thickness and varying in width.

Background of the invention In the production of pile fabrics from other than animal or natural fibers, several problems have been encountered in producing yarns that will equal or exceed the desirable qualities found in natural or animal fibers. Heretofore, many synthetic fibers have at least one superior quality as compared, for example, with an animal fiber such as wool, but in other respects the synthetic fibers have been found to be inferior. Examples of such desirable qualities in a carpet or pile fabric are resilience, abrasion resistance, freedom from static, dyeability, freedom from excessive soil retention, ability to weave, tuft or knit the synthetic yarns into a backing, and cost.

It has been found that carpet yarns using individual fibers that have been slit or shredded from an extruded 0 sheet or pellicle of synthetic plastic material give sur prisingly good performance in a pile carpet at relatively low cost. It will be understood that the pile yarn in a soft floor covering is the single largest factor in the cost of such fabric. This means that a substantial reduction in the cost of the pile yarn with comparable performance of the fabric results in the ability to produce a superior product without the necessity of relying upon the vagaries of the world market for carpet wool as well as the other problems involved in the importation of either or both the pile fiber or the backing fiber. The present fabric, preferably all synthetic, is equally suitable for indoor and/0r outdoor use. It may be solution dyed, and this applies both to the pile yarns as well as the backing material, it is impervious to weather, mildew, rot and moisture. Its strength and wearability are excellent compared with other synthetic and animal fiber fabrics, yet it can be produced at a cost which enables it to be completely expendable should it be desired to change the style, color or size of a given installation or should an area become damaged in any way. It is, therefore, a primary object of the invention to provide an improved pile fabric using random width synthetic fibers twisted into pile yarns which when incorporated into a fabric, may be either cut or uncut.

Description of the invention 3,422,615 Patented Jan. 21, 1969 "ice larged sectional view of FIGURE 3 (as seen at 33 of FIGURE 2), or they may be uncut as shown at 6b both in FIGURES 2 and 3. The particular fabric illustrated in the perspective of FIGURE 2 is a tufted fabric of the type that is well known in the carpet industry. The pile yarns are stitched in rows as the backing 5 is fed through the tufting machine. Individual pile projections or yarns 6a and 6b may be either partially cut or uncut as shown in FIGURES 2 and 3, totally out or totally uncut. Furthermore, the relative height of the pile projections may be controlled (whether cut or uncut) by one of several well known types of pattern attachments which are utilized for this purpose. The use of such equipment, however, does not form a part of the present invention but has been described to give the proper background for the showing of a tufted pile fabric. It will be understood, of course, that woven pile fabrics are included within the scope of the present invention.

Each of the individual pile projects 7 as shown in FIGURE 1 comprises a plurality of fibers or filaments twisted together into yarns that are stitched or woven to form the pile of the fabric. Each of the filaments of the yarn 7 comprises a flat length or strip of a synthetic plastic material that has been shredded or sliced from a pellicle to provide random width filaments. The widest filaments 8 shown in FIGURE 1 may be as much as of an inch and the width thereof decreases randomly to a minimum width filament or filaments shown at 9, with intermediate width filaments shown at 10. It will be understood, of course, that the widths are entirely random due to the splitting or fibrilating action employed in converting the pellicle to the oriented or stretched filaments. It follows, of course, that filaments produced from the same pellicle will be of substantially the same thickness at least within the thickness tolerances of the extrusion and drafting equipment desirably employed in the production of the pellicle. This random cross section area of the different filaments in each yarn produces an unexpected and unusually satisfactory effect when the yarns are twisted and incorporated in a pile fabric. This effect may be more prominent in the case of cut pile since the ends of the tufts tend to blend into a homogeneous mass in which the wide filaments provide resiliency and the narrow filaments provide the required hand and cover.

Any synthetic plastic material capable of being extruded into a pellicle and then cut or shredded into random width filaments is generally satisfactory for the yarns of the present invention. Those that have been found to be satisfactory are the polyolefins, particularly polypropylene due to its natural tendency to fibrilate on drafting. Other materials may be used such as nylon, vinyl, vinylidene chloride, polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene, polyester, polyacrylonitrile, acetate, triace'tate, rayon (cellulosics), and glass.

It will thus be understood that I have provided an improved relatively inexpensive pile fabric that has the desirable features of an animal fiber fabric but which is not subject to deterioration due to rot, mildew, moisture, or other disadvantages commonly associated with much more expensive products.

I claim:

1. A pile fabric comprising a backing, a plurality of pile yarns secured in said backing, each of said pile yarns being composed of a plurality of flat strips of synthetic plastic filaments twisted together, said filaments having rectangular cross-sections of substantially equal thickness and random widths.

,2. A fabric in accordance with claim 1 in which the backing is a synthetic plastic material.

3. A fabric in accordance with claim 1 in which the widest filaments have a width of substantially one sixteenth of an inch.

4. A fabric in accordance with claim 1, in which the filaments are a polyolefin. 2,920,349 1/1960 5. A fabric in accordance with claim 1, in which each 3,033,240 5/ 1962 yarn has filaments of at least three different widths. 3,273,771 9/ 1966 References Cited 5 UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,143,574 1/1939 Porter et al. 57140 Pamrn et a1. 57140 White et al. 28-1 Bottorf 57140 Beaumont 57-140 STANLEY N. GI-LREATH, Primary Examiner.

WERNER H. SCHROEDER, Assistant Examiner. 

